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' E.L.KENYON. PHONOGRAPH "03ml,"- APPLICATION "LIP FEB. Ik-

Patented May 6, 191a.

ELMER L. KENYON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 6, 1919.

Application filed February 18, 1916. Serial No. 79,022.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELMER LAWTON KEN- YoN, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inPhonograph-Horns, of which the following is the specification.

This invention relates to sound intensifying horns and particularly tomeans for clarifying the tones delivered by such horns and to avoidingthe confusion thereof, incident to the use of these horns as heretoforemade.

As well lmown, horns for phonographs, or for other similar purposes, aredesigned to increase the loudness of the tones entering the horn. Thisis accomplished by confining the sonorously vibrating air within thelimiting walls of horns, or so-called resonance boxes, or resonancechambers, thus carrying the sound in one general direction, and alsoutilizing the well known principle of resonance. While this method iseflicacious and has no counteracting disadvantages where merelloudnessof sound is the desider: atum, as in fog horns and the like, it doesintroduce serious disadvantages inthe reproduction of music.

A long, uninterrupted horn applied to a phonograph not only kills manyof the finer notes but more or less noticeably confuses the musicproduced thereby, because it introduces tones produced by the hornvibrating irregularly in an attempt to respond as a unit to difi'erentvibrations set up in different parts of the horn by the music, and

also because the horn entire is generally too unwieldy to respond atonce .to the changing vibrations of the music, thus in a horn ofordinary length the closing vibrations in response to one note willinterfere with the opening vibrations in response to another note.

It is the object of the invention to remedy the defects anddisadvantages above described and to produce. a horn, particularlyapplicable for intensifying fine and delicate music, in which extraneousaudible tones will be diminished and in which clash or confusion ofdifferent parts of the horn atthe same time instead of producing aperfeet response to the music will be rendered impossible. v

I have also discovered a large amount of blur in rendition of fine musicis due to an excessive vibration at the mouth of the horn. Thisphenomenon may be easily understood when it is considered that all ofthe particles of the horn, between the two ends thereof, are constrainedby particles on both sides but that the end of the horn is free andunconstrained. With vibrations traveling from the inner to the outeredge of a phonograph horn, the free end or mouth vibrates with anexcessive amplitude and so produces a variation in the tone differentfrom that produced by a synchronous vibration of the body of the hornand tending ,to blur the music.

It is a further object of my invention therefore to prevent thisexcessive vibration at the end of the horn, first, by tightly bindingsaid end to the body of the born, or sec- 0nd, to weight the end of thehorn, or both,

whereby the-particles at the end of the horn will be prevented fromvibrating excessively, but will have their vibrations brought intouniformity with those in'the body of the horn, thus eliminating anyinterfering vibra- -tions and encouraging those that improve In thedrawings, 1 represents the casing of a phonograph, the details of whichare not important to the invention; 2 represents the customary bracketor arm, pivotally supporting the phonograph horn by means of the carrier3 and pivot 4 as shown. I divide a horn into a plurality of independentsections, alined however, so that their contour lies in acontinuoussurface. The sections somewhat exaggerated in the drawing but should beappreciable. With the horn made up of sections as indicated, it will beimpossible for vibrations to travel from one section to another.Extraneous tones in the various individual sections will be absentbecause each section is made small enough so that it can respond as aunit and completely to the vibrations set up by the music in it and willnot be dampened by the lagging effect of a large volume of materialintegral with it, which is not responding to the same musical vibrationsbut is setting .up inharmonious' and-unsympathetic vibrations of itsown. If extraneous tones are present in the individual section they willbe so feeble as to be inaudible. By extraneous tones are meant tones notintended in the music and resulting either from the failure of thehornas a whole to vibrate correctly or because the vibration of some regionof the horn is hampered by the lagging effect of some other part of thehorn not quickly enough assuming the required vibration. Of course thelength and general dimensions of the sectionsare matters of importanceinasmuch as for different kinds of music it is probable that differentsections would be preferable. This, however, must be determined byactual experiment, it being obvious that there must be some length whichwould give the best results with each and every kind of music and oneseries of lengths for the different sections which would give very muchbetter results than a solid horn for any kind of music generally playedupon the phonograph.

The described constructions of the horn will not diminish the volume ofsound because it does not in the least interfere with either of the twoprinciples described at the beginning of the specification, which areresponsible for increasing the volume. In so far as concerns deliveringthe music in the same general direction, a sectional horn arrangedaccording to my invention is substantially as good as a solid horn. Inso far as concerns resonance, the sound increasing efiect in my hornwill be substantially as great as that of a solid horn of the same sizeand shape because the resonance will be substantially the same. It is,of course, obvious that the sections may overlap, provided the passageof vibrations from one to another be prevented by padding or the like.

To eliminate or diminish the whip action, I provide at both free ends ofeach section,

a tight metal crimping band or cap, suchv as illustrated in the drawingsby reference character 7. This band binds the particles at the end'ofthe horn more tightly to-the body of the horn than the particles in thebody of the horn are bound to the adjoining particles thus introducing amore uniform vibration of the entire section, and preventing excessvibrations or whip action at the end of the horn. It would also bepossible to entirely sheath the horn or horn section in metal or othermaterial crimping this material more tightly at or adjacent theends thanit is bound to the body portion of the horn or horn section.

I claim:

1. A horn for sound intensifying, comprising a plurality of sectionsadapted to make an interrupted conical shaped horn when supported inline, means to support said sections with their axes in alinement, andhaving the end'periphery of each section spaced from the end peripheryof the adjoining section, whereby the superficial periphery of saidassembled sections will lie substantially in a cone and the individualvibrations of the sections will be permitted.

2. In apparatus of the class described, a horn comprising a plurality ofsections arranged and supported in alinement, each section spaced fromthe preceding one and each free for individual vibration and theperiphery of all sections lying within a regular continuous surface.

3. In apparatus ofthe class described, a horn comprising a plurality ofsectionsarranged. and supported in alinement, each section spaced fromthe preceding one and the periphery of all sections lying within aregular continuous surface, and each intervening space between sectionsbridged in an airtight" manner but without damping the individualvibration of the sections so that the vibrations of one section shallinterfere as little as possible with those adjoining.

4. A sound intensifying apparatus comprising a horn made up of aplurality of separate sections supported for free individual vibration,each whereof,'is supported independently for independent vibration, butall of which are supported with their axes in alinement.

5. A sound intensifying apparatus of the class described, comprising abody portion made up of a plurality .of separate sections, each ofsaidsections supported independently for independent vibration, and meansfor supporting said sections in spaced apart relation with theirrespective longitudmal central lines falling in a continuous line.

6. A sound intensifying instrument, comprising an interrupted horn madeup of a plurality of separate sections each spaced from the precedingsection and supported .forfree individual vibration, metallic reinmyname to this specification in the presence forcements tightly bindingand weighting of two Witnesses. the ends of said sections, whereby tomake the vibrations at the ends of each section ELMER KENYON' 5 uniformwith those of the center 'without Witnesses:

preventing the vibration of the section. Y SEBASTIAN HmToN,

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe MARION EPHGRAYE.

